Tommies Defeat Aigles Bleues 4-2

By: Sean Crocker, BA'18

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The St. Thomas Tommies defeated the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleues 4-2 in AUS women's hockey action Saturday afternoon at the Grant-Harvey Centre.

The Tommies and Aigles Bleues were deadlocked for the first 20 minutes of the action with the game tied and the shots 11-10 for the Tommies.

The Aigles Bleues opened the scoring 2:20 into the second period on a power play marker from Karine Roy.

That goal didn't go unanswered as the Tommies struck back 49 seconds later on a fluttering puck from Becky Conner who was on the doorstep to bang home a rebound.

Tommies head coach Peter Murphy was happy with the outcome, but didn't think it was the team's best effort.

"I thought we came out a bit flat today," Murphy said. "That [tying] goal seemed to get them going, and it seemed to get the game going."

The game was tightly contested for the duration—something Murphy said is typical when the two teams face off.

"We always play a tight game against Moncton," Murphy said. "I don't think their record is indicative of their team. They have a good team and we always tend to play them really tight."

The Tommies went on to score at 19:26 of the second period with Emily Oleksuk deflecting a shot from Kelty Apperson past Aigles Bleues goalie Gabrielle Forget.

The score remained 2-1 until the halfway mark of the third, when Marie-Pierre Corriveau of Moncton capitalized to tie the game.

Danielle Ring responded for the Tommies after she found her own rebound and buried it past Forget's outstretched leg.

"You're not really going to beat that goaltender that easily," Murphy said of Forget. "She sees the puck really well like most goalies in the league. It's one of those things where you have to generate rebounds or redirects."

 Lauren Legault added a late insurance marker to make it 4-2 for the Tommies.

Murphy was not overly impressed with his team's play which he said will have to be better tomorrow when they face the Mount Allison Mounties.

"We just can't get into doing some of the bad habits we had today," Murphy said. "We just have to stick to our game in order to win."